Little Napoleon Coffee

Little Napoleon Coffee Roasters is on the horizon! I have to say, that I like roasting coffee...and the house always smells great. We have a small roaster that I have been practicing with. This was the Mexican Organic Terruño Nayarita. It has a very nice flavor, light and interesting. We have been keeping a roasting log and tasting notes, so when we get ready for blends or to go commercial, we will have some notes to go by. The beans arrive green. I purchased a Nesco Professional roaster for home use, and it is easy to use. Here is the process in pictures:

Green beans, ready to roast.

Turning brown, mild roast.

Browner still, medium roast.

Done! Dark roast.

After the beans finishing cooling for another 10 minutes, they are removed from the roaster and left to "rest" from several to 24 hours before using or packaging. I have a great little Krups grinder that I use to grind the whole beans, but am looking forward to getting a burr grinder, which allows for versatility in grinding. There is definitely huge difference in flavor when the beans are freshly roasted. So now I gear up for selling custom roasted coffee, we'll start small and see how it goes...

Beans resting before using or packaging.

Heritage Apples

On Saturday, my new shipment of heritage apples arrived. I spent part of yesterday afternoon mixing together some organic soil and compost, and got all 17 grafts into pots. Then I had to fight with the 3 roosters and four breeding hens over the mulch pile, where I have been heeling my plants that I was not able to get planted for overwintering. I did get them in, after much shooshing and chicken chasing. My two varieties, which I ordered back in early 2008, are Fox, which will be used for cooking and our apple butters, and Golden Pearmain, an excellent eating apple. Here are descriptions and pictures:

Fox - This is one of the many apples once collected and grown by the late Henry Morton of Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Henry was responsible for collecting dozens of rare and lost varieties in his many years of work and is most famous for preserving the many old apple trees which were once prolific in the valleys and hollows of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. During the creation of the park many long-time residents were forced to abandon their lands and homesteads including their prized apple orchards. Due to Henry's efforts many of these extraordinary varieties were carefully collected and saved for future generations. The Fox was one of Henry's discoveries. If you like a sour apple then the Fox is the apple for you! It is a medium to large, greenish-yellow apple with a very tart and unusual flavor. The tartness of the Fox may be too intense for many palates but it does make an outstanding cooking apple. Makes wonderful apple butter and is excellent for cider. Ripens in August and is a poor keeper.

Golden Pearmain (Clarke’s Pearmain, Yellow Pearmain) - A beautiful apple of obscure origin. Golden Pearmain is believed to be one of the original apples grown in Thomas Jefferson’s orchards in Monticello. The medium-sized, somewhat conical fruit has an attractive golden-orange skin, marbled and striped with red and bronze. The fine-grained, yellow flesh is firm, crisp and juicy. Ripens in October and is a fair keeper.

I will probably be getting a couple more common varieties for delivery next spring when we will get the whole orchard planted. Also going to get a few sour cherries. Mmmm. Apple and cherry pies!

The Winning Chili Recipe

As promised on Twitter, here is the recipe that won best overall, and hottest (even though it was NOT that hot) chili at my "job other than the farm that used to pay for the farm" chili cook-off.

Roasted Corn and Chipotle Chili

Ingredients:

3 pounds lean stew beef

4 tbsp. canola oil

1 large vidalia onion, diced

1 large red pepper, diced

3 tbsp. McCormick's chipotle chili powder

2 16 oz. cans pureed tomatoes

1 20 oz can kidney beans

3 cobs of corn, roasted on grill or under broiler, then cut off cob

In a large sauce pan, over medium high heat, add 2 tbsp oil. When the oil just starts to smoke, add the beef and brown all over. When the meat is finished browning, add enough water over the beef to cover, and place on burner at low for about 3 hours, until the beef almost falls apart and is tender. After the beef has finished, drain and finish the chili as follows. In another large pot over medium high heat, add the remaining oil. When it is just smoking, add the onion, peppers and chipotle chili powder. Stir until onions are translucent. Add tomato puree, kidney beans, corn and meat to the pot. Let simmer for an hour, add additional chili powder to taste, but the 3 tbsp gives it just enough kick without making it fiery. Enjoy!

From Dirt to Dinner

Phase one of the new education program for schools is under way. From Dirt to Dinner is meant to be an educational process that teaches children the value of understanding where their food comes from (and that doesn't just have to be the farm), what is dirt and how to keep it healthy, the process of planting (we provide seeds) and following the process through to planting, preparing, and eating what is grown. The book will contain the coursework, and includes a section on nutrition and some kid friendly recipes. We also hope to work with the schools to get their lunchrooms to purchase locally produced ingredients and incorporate healthy but delicious menus for their students. I know, it is ambitious, but we believe in the cause. Here is the book cover and design we will use for the marketing pieces. We are looking for sponsors of the project now.

The website is www.dirttodinner.com, and will be up soon.

Grape News!

Okay, after a very serious, and still relavant post, a little update of several farm topics. The wild grape jelly follow up... I picked lots of clusters of wild grapes, as you can see here:

Then I pulled all of the grapes off the stems into a bowl in preparation for making the jelly...thank goodness for mindless Sunday football. A big bowl ensues:

And so, after perusal of many recipes on the web to help me with my jelly making dilema, I chose one I thought would meet my ability level and got to work. I had to add sugar (organic, of course) and the pectin at the proper moment, but that was pretty much it. I had to make it in two batches, as there was so much juice. So one batch survived, and one, not so much. Lesson learned? Yes. I am not yet sure about the final result, except to say, you would NEVER think of this immediately as "grape jelly" by taste. Though the color is astounding, and since I had to squeeze the pulp through a cheesecloth and had purple palms for days - I can tell it would make a great natural dye.

One batch set, the other did not, so I tossed that one.

Sauerkraut finally emerged from the crock - and it was a huge success! I had to spread the wealth - and it was loved by all who tasted it! Next year we will do more! Mary, Fran, Cheryl, tell the folks how you liked it?

So, there we are, Sauerkraut and grape jelly...who knew?

Help Save the Farm

Dear friends of Napoleon Ridge Farm. We are in a bit of a dilemma, and maybe YOU can help us. Times are a little depressing just now, as we are going to have to think about losing the farm if we cannot find a way to make up the for the lost income that is a result of a huge pay decrease from my full time job that covered my farm payments. Yes, we know that times are tough out there for everyone - and that is so for us too. No, we are not asking you for money, just to take a few minutes of your time to help tell our story to Ellen Degeneres, who has a promotion on her show to help people like us who are going through a hard time. If you have been following this blog, you know the passion I feel for my farm, and how it is my dream, for now and my future. I am sure in the scope of things, there are far worse stories, but the thought of losing everything I have worked so hard for over the past four years, just as we are seeing progress really breaks my heart. So if you would like to help, stop by this link and tell Ellen about your part in our journey, and how Ellen can help tide us over until we figure out the next step. Our thanks in advance. Just copy and paste this link as it does not appear to be live:

http://ellen.warnerbros.com/show/respond/?PlugID=234

Tricia